Let`s Have Reparations For Everyone

CHICAGO — I was amazed and appalled to learn of the bill providing a $20,000 reparation payment to each of 120,000 Japanese-Americans who suffered in America`s internment camps during World War II.

I think that the treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II by the U.S. government was abominable and inexcusable. But the time to pay reparations was in 1945-46, not 42 years later by a new generation of innocent taxpayers. Monetary assistance directly after the war would have helped to assimilate these mistreated Americans back into society.

At this time, the U.S. needs to apologize to those who suffered, to realize its mistakes and to vow to never allow such atrocities to happen again. Paying $1.3 billion of taxpayers` money 42 years after the fact is not going to change past mistakes. Japanese-Americans have done a remarkable job of assimilating and even excelling in American society since World War II. The time when reparation payment was needed to repair their lives is over. And most importantly, the U.S. government cannot afford it.

Our government has made horrible mistakes in the treatment of its citizens since its creation. If it gets into the habit of paying victims for its past mistakes-as in the case of Japanese-Americans-it` s only fair that several hundred billion dollars be allotted to pay reparations to the American Indians who were displaced many years ago and never brought into U.S. society. And what about descendants of slaves, women, the handicapped, the mentally ill, elderly, or toxic waste victims? Shouldn`t they be compensated for past inhumane acts committed by this country as well?

The only practical solution to this dilemma is for the U.S. government to humbly apologize to all of those with whom it has dealt unfairly and move on by committing itself to improve the human conditions for everyone in this country.